Auditor JB McCuskey is sworn in before giving his testimony to the Senate Government Organization Committee on Friday, February 9, 2018. Photo by Will Price, Legislative Photography.

BY: KATELYN CAMPBELL, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT POLICY VISTA, THE HUB

Each year, every municipality is required to undergo an audit to ensure they are properly managing public funds. This is a good thing – it makes sure local governments are keeping their books in order and managing tax payer dollars effectively.

While it’s clear that these audits are important tools to keep governments accountable to their citizens, getting them completed can be difficult. Some municipalities don’t have the money to hire an outside auditor or can’t get any firms to offer to conduct the audit for the amount the state code allows them to pay.

Meanwhile, according to State Auditor JB McCuskey, there are close to 30 open positions in the State Auditor’s office that they have been unable to fill due to low starting pay compared with similar positions in the private sector.

Each student was responsible for auditing one local government’s financial records, allowing them to gain public sector experience while providing much-needed audit support for these small towns. The Auditor noted in his testimony before the Senate Government Organization Committee last Friday that this partnership has also connected his office with potential new hires.

Auditor McCuskey is hoping legislators will authorize expansion of the pilot program during this Legislative Session.

Senate Bill 479 seeks to make the local government monitoring pilot program permanent while allowing it to expand to form relationships with colleges and universities other than WVU. The bill also increases the total amount a municipal government can spend on an audit – a remedy both Oak Hill and Weston pursued through their municipal home rule applications – which would allow municipalities to seek out more competitive bidders to perform their annual audit.

Innovative programs like this give much-needed resources to municipalities who want to do the right thing but face financial barriers to doing so, particularly for those located in areas with declining tax revenues.

Citizens line up to secure spots to speak before a public hearing on HB 4366 on Tuesday. Photo by Taylor Bennett.

BY: TAYLOR BENNETT, POLICY COORDINATOR, THE HUB

This week, public hearings have taken the spotlight. Here’s what you need to know about how and when a public hearing is called and how to participate in this method of letting your Legislators know what you think.

During the Legislative Session, public hearings are convened most often by the House of Delegates about particular bills. They can be requested by a Legislator or a member of the public.

Reasons why you might request a public hearing:

The bill in question would impact a large group of people who would like to speak out for or against the bill

To demonstrate widespread public support for or against a bill

To educate more than one legislator about the impact of a bill at the same time

Public hearings are generally held by the committee where a bill has been referenced. The best time to request a public hearing is after the bill has been referred to a committee, but before the bill has made it on the agenda.

In order to request a public hearing on a bill, you need to contact the secretary or the chair of the committee in which the bill will be discussed. They will most often honor a request to hold a public hearing, but they may not always be required to do so. A hearing can be scheduled for anytime after one is requested and is generally scheduled during business hours.

Hearings are generally held at the Capitol building, but may be held at another location, particularly if the legislation would have a more profound impact on people living in a particular region.

During a public hearing, members of the public are encouraged to share how a bill will impact them. Those wishing to speak will be asked to add their name to a list of speakers. Each person will be given a small time slot to share their point of view. In order to participate effectively in a public hearing you should:

Know your stuff. You’ll have to make your case in a short amount of time, usually 1-3 minutes.

Coordinate with fellow speakers. If there are lots of reasons why a bill should or shouldn’t pass, each speaker might consider highlighting one of them.

Make it personal. Make sure to tell Legislators how this bill would impact you and folks like you.

To find out whether a public hearing has been scheduled, call the office of the Clerk of the House or Senate. They will be able to tell you when a hearing is scheduled for and where it will be held. This week, several Legislators have made the effort to attend public hearings located outside of Charleston in the evenings, giving members of the public more opportunity to speak up.

Public hearings are a method that’s often used to allow for public participation in the legislative process, but there can be some significant challenges presented by using hearings as the primary method for listening to public opinion.

Hearings can be scheduled immediately after they are requested. This week, that quick turnaround has made it difficult for people who cannot take off work or afford to travel to Charleston to participate.

Likewise, generally scheduling public hearings during business hours often prohibits working families from attending.

Legislators don’t always attend public hearings. In the case that they aren’t able to make it, members of the public share their stories in the hopes that they are later communicated to legislators so that they can be taken into account.

Members of the public are only allowed to speak in 1- 3 minute increments, depending on how long the hearing will go for and how many people have signed up to speak. It can be quite difficult to share the entire story about the effects of a bill in such a short amount of time.

Members of the public may not be sure how to participate in the system. (Hopefully, we’re helping to fix this challenge right now.)

Each of these challenges can impact the effectiveness of this method of public engagement. This doesn’t mean that citizens shouldn’t participate in public hearings, we need to. And, we also need to be asking critical questions about how to make the process of providing public opinion to legislators more effective.

Interested in more articles like this one? Subscribe to The Hub’s Legislative Hubbub email, sent every Thursday during Session. Sign up now »

Members of the House gather around the Speaker’s podium to debate the germane-ness of an amendment to a bill on February 13. The 13th was the last day for bills to be introduced in the House. Photo by Perry Bennett, Legislative Photography.

BY: TAYLOR BENNETT, POLICY COORDINATOR, THE HUB

This week saw a tidal wave of new bills introduced, especially in the House of Delegates. This is due in large part to impending deadlines that make sure legislators move policy through the process. Feb 13th was the last day to introduce bills in the House, and Feb 19th will be the last day for bills to be introduced in the Senate. Here’s our highlights:

This bill would require any officer, agency or department of a state or municipal government applying for a grant to submit a report for review to the Governor and the Office of Fiscal Risk Management.

The report would need to include a cost-benefit analysis of the grant, the anticipated impact of the grant, and the purpose of the program.

This bill would prompt Urban Renewal Authorities to create and submit plans to county boards of health for review, meet with communities and municipalities to share these plans, and make their reports available to local governments.

The purpose of this bill is to create a matching program for the Small Business Innovation and Research Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program. This means that entrepreneurs making use of these programs would be eligible for more funds.

This bill would establish a fund which would be administered by the WV Development Office and is intended to be used to support entrepreneurship, creation of business startups, workforce participation, and talent pipelines.

It was introduced on Feb 13th and referred to the Committee on Finance, where it was reviewed on Feb 15th.

This bill would prohibit public employers from requesting information regarding a person’s criminal history on a job application. This could have an impact on the ability of formerly incarcerated folks to be employed.

This bill would assess an extra fee to non-occupied properties owned by out of state property owners at a rate of $4 per acre. Money collected would be applied to the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) to reduce insurance costs.

A citizen testifies during a public hearing on HB 4268 on February 9, 2018. Photo by Perry Bennett, Legislative Photography.

BY: TAYLOR BENNETT, POLICY COORDINATOR, THE HUB

Right now, perhaps more than at any moment before in this session, I find myself with serious questions about citizen access to and the transparency of our legislative process.

Together, we’ve explored and demystified some of the intricate processes of engaging with legislators and the legislative system and I’m excited to continue to work together in the weeks to come. In a lot of cases, I’ve found that participation is just a matter of understanding how and when to get involved. But, what happens when we run into processes that are prohibitively difficult to understand, or avenues of engagement that aren’t set up such that the majority of West Virginians can make use of them?

I think the short answer is, we’ve got to continue asking these questions until we have a process that we all can participate in.

Having a system in which citizens have fair access means having a system that is designed to facilitate participation from citizens.

Some suggestions might be:

Redesigning the legislative website so that information that would make citizen participation, such as meeting schedules, agendas, and the status of bills is more intuitive. At the very least, making sure that video and audio feeds are functional, meeting agendas are posted and bill statuses updated as soon as possible.

Making sure that opportunities for public engagement are scheduled at times and locations when working families can participate.

Creating methods for participation in addition to public hearings and lobby visits, which help West Virginians from around the state participate. One example might be enabling folks to provide testimony at public hearings through video conference or telephone if they are not able to make it in person.

Have more suggestions? Let us know.

Having a transparent system means having a system in which all processes are conducted clearly and without secrecy. This week saw a huge leap forward in the form of the State Auditor, J. B. McCuskey’s WVCheckbook website. Through this website, you can see everything that the WV state government is spending money on.

It’s not the only move that we can make toward a more transparent government, but it’s a huge step in the right direction.

Interested in more articles like this one? Subscribe to The Hub’s Legislative Hubbub email, sent every Thursday during Session. Sign up now »

BY: KATELYN CAMPBELL, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT POLICY VISTA, THE HUB

In an understated announcement on the House Floor on Monday, Delegate Charlotte Lane announced a new tool created by the State Auditor’s office to give citizens a window into the way state agencies spend public money.

WV Checkbook provides real time updates on where West Virginians’ money is going. So, whether you want to know how much the Supreme Court paid for a polygraph test or how much was deposited into the state’s General Revenue Fund on any given day, the information you need is only a few clicks away.

Prior to the launch of the WV Checkbook site, there was a process to get access to information about the state’s transactions, but it was not particularly expedient. Reporters and concerned citizens would first have to identify the state agency that housed the information, then fill out a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, then make sure they sent it to the right person, then wait for their request to be answered.

Not only did this process take a lot of time, but it required you to know exactly what piece of information you were looking for. These two factors combined to discouraged the average citizen from regularly checking up on how their money is being spent, or even just exploring what different areas of state government are doing.

Now, citizens can be informed much more quickly about how our taxes are being utilized, making us more informed advocates and voters.

Redevelopment, revitalization, reuse, reinvestment, resources, rehabilitation — all opportunities and necessities for community economic development in West Virginia. Whether a historic building in a downtown, a mall, a former mine site, industrial site or other institutional uses, a huge part of our economic success will depend on new uses, new ideas, new investment, new and improved businesses and new partners at the community level throughout the state.

Fortunately, many efforts and programs are underway across the state to address these opportunities and to assist communities in redeveloping their assets. Vibrant communities support economic activities of industrial development, tourism and the natural gas industry to make West Virginia a place where businesses want to locate, natives want to return or millennials want to move to live out their entrepreneurial dreams. All these economic niches benefit from cool spaces, nicely rehabilitated buildings, great architecture, unique businesses, local foods and quality of place that offer an experience that can’t be found online.

Timely for the writing of this piece is the retention of the Historic Preservation Tax Credit, one of the main tools…

BY: KATELYN CAMPBELL, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT POLICY VISTA, THE HUB

Talk of constitutional amendments has been creating quite the buzz at the Capitol this year.

So far this Session, 40 joint resolutions to amend the state constitution have been brought forward. Proposed amendments run the gamut from electing state school board members to creating Legislative oversight over the judicial branch, with many hot button issues in between.

The process of how our constitution is amended can often be confusing in the midst of all of the hubbub — rumors about which amendments have been proposed abound, while the success of joint resolutions in the Legislature can be made to seem as if they are final rather than just a first step in the amendment process.

While both Houses can pass joint resolutions calling for additions or changes to the state Constitution, there’s a much larger process required before West Virginia’s Constitution can actually be amended.

Step 1

Any proposed Constitutional amendment starts with an idea based on a perceived need in the state. It might be a need to clarify an existing legal issue, or a need to approve the sale of bonds to create a funding stream for a new project. In the past, the Constitution has been amended to create funding for roads, dollars for bonuses of Korean War veterans, and to set the number of justices on the state Supreme Court of Appeals.

Step 2

Once the idea is refined, it is put into bill language and introduced in at least one House in the Legislature via a joint resolution. After a joint resolution is introduced in one house, it must be read three times on three separate days and agreed upon by at least a two thirds majority of members- that’s more than the simple majority necessary to pass a regular bill. If the joint resolution is approved, it travels on to the second house, where it must go through the same reading and voting process again.

Step 3

If the joint resolution makes it through both houses, it’s then placed on the ballot during either a special election or the next general election (you might remember this happening this past summer, when the Road Bond Amendment was placed before voters).

Step 4

Then, if a majority of the qualified voters vote yes on the amendment, it is ratified and the Constitution is amended.

Interested in seeing what proposed amendments are under consideration? See what proposed amendments might be making their way onto your ballot here. (Joint resolutions which could bring about a constitutional amendment are typically labeled as “SJR” or “HJR.”)

And, as always, let your representatives know what you think about these proposed amendments. You can find information for how to contact your representatives here.

Interested in more articles like this one? Subscribe to The Hub’s Legislative Hubbub email, sent every Thursday during Session. Sign up now »

Legislators circle up on the floor of the House. Photo by Perry Bennett, Legislative Photography.

BY: TAYLOR BENNETT, POLICY COORDINATOR, THE HUB

So, you’ve met with your legislators. You’ve talked them through your issue and asked them to vote in favor of your interests on a proposed bill or to move it through the committee that they chair. But things still don’t seem to be moving.

Sometimes it’s tough to get action on an issue, particularly if legislators have only heard one person’s opinion.

Legislators are elected to act on the interests and goals of everyone they represent. So, if you know that it’s not just you who will be impacted by a proposed bill and you’re not sure how to move forward here are a few thoughts on how to turn “my opinion” into “our opinion.”

1. Ask yourself, “Who also cares about the issue?”

There are two questions to ask to determine who might also want to share their opinion are: “What makes me care about this issue?”, and “Who is already working on it?”

Ask yourself what prompted you to care about this issue. It’s likely that what made you care you will make others care also. Additionally, keep your eyes out for ways that the issue you care about is related to or impact other groups of people – You might find there are people on your team you didn’t expect.

Look for groups of people who are working to help connect folks like you with their legislators. If you’re working on this issue, it’s like that other people or organizations will be as well. They’ll have lots of ideas for how you can help people connect as well.

2. Get people together.

Bringing people together to talk about the issue gives folks an opportunity to share information, understand the issue better and come to a consensus on what they want to ask for.

Additionally, it’s important to remember that policy action never occurs in a vacuum. When people come together, they tend to give themselves permission to ask for what they need with less fear of being singled out.

This might be as simple as talking through what to say on a phone call with legislators and setting up a time to do it. It could mean getting a group of folks together to go meet with legislators at the Capitol, sending in a large number of postcards asking for a particular action, or collecting signatures on a letter asking for a yes or no vote

Keep in mind that legislators want to hear from their constituents, particularly if they would be impacted by a proposed bill. Your friends and neighbors, members of your community are all represented by the same folks you are and may want to share their thoughts.

Whatever you choose to do, the goal is to show how many people share common perspective.

Interested in more articles like this one? Subscribe to The Hub’s Legislative Hubbub email, sent every Thursday during Session. Sign up now »

Small business Wheeling Coffee and Spice, located in Wheeling, WV. Photo by Katelyn Campbell.

BY: KATELYN CAMPBELL, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT POLICY VISTA, THE HUB

Always wanted to start a business in West Virginia? The Legislature is considering several bills that might make that easier.

Senate Bill 365, Senate Bill 119, and House Bill 4452 seek to address key challenges to getting a new business off the ground in the state through a combination of fee waivers and tax credits. These bills would provide specific benefits for populations who often face the largest hurdles to opening a business — low income and young people.

Tax Credit for New Small Businesses

HB 4452, which was introduced on Wednesday, would create a tax credit for new small businesses locating in the state. The bill calls for the calculation of a tax credit for each new small business that would even out to an effective income tax rate of 1% per year for the first five years the business is operating.

Often, a business isn’t profitable for the first year or more. During this time, the entrepreneur is often figuring out how to streamline their processes, or trying to raise enough money to scale production.

If passed, HB 4452 would give a new small business more time to build up and stabilize their business before being asked to shoulder a full tax bill.

The bill was taken up by the House Small Business and Economic Development Committee this morning.

Calling All Young Entrepreneurs

Back in 2016, the Legislature passed the Young Entrepreneur Reinvestment Act, which waives fees for filing articles of incorporation to start a new business or nonprofit for people under 30. Since then, 106 new businesses have made use of the program.

This year, the Young Entrepreneur Reinvestment Act is up for renewal. SB 365 seeks to make the Act permanent rather than adding another sunset provision.

The bill was introduced on January 24 and was approved by the Senate Economic Development Committee on Wednesday. It will now travel to the floor of the Senate to be read three times and voted on before it can head over to the House.

Encouraging Investment In Low Income Communities

SB 119 would encourage investment in low income communities by providing a tax credit to investors (often insurance companies) who make equity investments or investments in long term debt securities issues by qualified community development entities.

The money invested in these qualified community development entities will be used to make investments in the communities they serve. One of the potential uses is for making loans to low income small business owners, who are often not eligible for traditional small business lending resources.

Proponents argue that this bill would incentivize bringing more New Market Tax Credit investments to West Virginia. Opponents expressed concern about tax credits preventing new funds from reaching cash-strapped volunteer and paid fire departments.

Delegate Mike Caputo speaks on the floor of the House on February 1. Photo by Perry Bennett, Legislative Photographer.

BY: TAYLOR BENNETT, POLICY COORDINATOR, THE HUB

This week at the Legislature has been a whirlwind of new bills, public hearings, debates, and demonstrations. In the midst of all of the hubbub, here’s an update on the community development bills we’re watching.

This bill relates to the sale of property tax debt. It states that for debts greater than $1,000, the Secretary of State will send certified mail to the property owner of record informing them of the delinquency. For debts less than $1,000, first class mail will be used. Currently, certified mail is used in all cases.

This bill would create a Minority Development Advisory Team to help the Director of the Development Authority to improve employment and economic development challenges faced by minority populations in WV.

The bill was introduced on Jan 10th

HB 4323 – Nonrenewal of Licenses for people who are not current on taxes

Just like the title says, this bill would make it so that folks who are not current on their taxes are unable to obtain licenses of all kinds.

The bill passed through the House on Feb 7th with a majority of votes.

This bill would establish the Mountaineer Trail Authority Network in north, central WV. This would enable the Authority to limit liability for landowners, have a board, and more effectively manage trail development.

This bill would establish a tax credit for newly established small businesses with less than 26 employees. The business would be able to take up to 1% of their earned income against their income tax for the first 5 years.

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